Video: Pipilotti Rist

Pipilotti Rist’s messy attempt to escape from a television set (at least that’s what it looks like), which first screened back in 2000 on one of the massive monitors in the middle of Times Square, NY, will occupy the BBC Big Screen in Liverpool for two months as part of a new exhibition at FACT, of the artist’s recent work.

Whatever your view on Rist’s creations – which could legitimately range from severely disturbing to touchingly brilliant, and most everything between – one thing they’re not is easily forgettable.

Blood Room, for example, graphically explores menstruation by showing a naked woman with what appears to be blood oozing from her body. That the work causes discomfort among viewers is perhaps the artist’s point.

It would be a mistake, however, to reduce Rist’s work to the realm of mere spectacle. Visual impact is central, but her art touches on fascinating ideas of religion, perception and the limitations of technology.

The Room, for example, featuring a massively oversized sofa and armchair, is an effective (albeit not entirely original) visual illusion in which the participating viewer feels shrunken and childlike. The soothing escapism of Gravity Be My Friend, the final part of a trilogy launched at the 51st Venice Biennial, is an unexpected sensory delight – and, like much of Rist’s work, is best served with an open mind.

2 July 2008 | Art